'As a recent graduate in Engineering & Technology Management, I didn’t know whether I was ready for the job market or not. Therefore I decided to first join a company as a working student. And so I started working for Deloitte, in the SAP Offering specifically. In my role I focused on the joint development of Qualtrics capabilities within SAP. On top of working on this research, I was also keen to make a promotional video on this subject on behalf of Deloitte NSE for a big SAP conference in Munich. Ultimately, I even presented my findings in front of the full SAP offering (180 people). These are just a few examples of all that made me excited to take the next step and become a Business Analyst. Ever since the paperwork was in place, I immediately got staffed on a project, in which we are supporting the client (an industrial manufacturing firm, operating in the Oil and Gas industry) in a full SAP S/4HANA implementation. In this multi-year project we are designing and building a template in the Netherlands which will be rolled out globally.'

'Personally, I started helping to create and edit the test scripts for the upcoming User Acceptance Test (UAT). I really liked the work as it gave me a nice first glimpse on how the SAP system worked. Not much later, the project manager asked me to support with some PMO related tasks and at a given moment I was even asked to lead a UAT stand-up meeting with the client. A little nervous I was, but it was absolutely great to have this first individual client experience. After the UAT, in January, we went on a ski-trip together with around 550 colleagues. This meant four days of amazing slopes, a lot of fun with your colleagues and awesome parties at the self-made Deloitte après-ski-bar! There is no doubt – if COVID allows – I will join next year again! After this fun event, the go-live deadline of the first wave of the project came closer and a cutover plan had to be created and I became the owner of this task. Given the fact that my colleagues already worked for more than a year to bring the system live successfully, I really felt the responsibility to manage this cutover in a proper manner. Hence, after consulting all Deloitte team leads and Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) from the client, the plan contained more than 1600 individual steps. As a cutover manager I had to make sure the right tasks were performed by the right people at the right moment in time. This cycle continued from Thursday until Sunday evening when all 1600 steps of the plan were completed. This was the glorious moment that we could say: We are live!'

'With this great success, we confidently prepared ourselves for the next waves, not knowing what was about to face all of us: COVID-19. This forced a shift in thinking, communicating, and delivering. The project team moved on, but now with a renewed time-line and on a remote basis. This meant that we needed to perform a new testing cycle, workshops, and even a go-live weekend managed predominantly from home. One can imagine the communicative challenges that brings along once the pressure increases reaching the deadline. Now, after two successful go-lives, I am impressed how quickly we were able to adapt this new situation. Not only at the client, but also internal at Deloitte COVID had its implications; colleagues from different projects didn’t see nor speak each other, the SAP offering could not organize any plenary sessions, and the Friday Afternoon drinks at the Mahler Café were not allowed anymore. To compensate this lack of interpersonal connection, our SAP Social Media Team was founded and I was happy to take part in it. In the Social Media Team, we had to think about ways to bring everyone together while being apart. Hence, we organized multiple pub quizzes, a “Show-Me-Your-Crib” series, a “Virtual VrijMiBo” and a daily “Spot-the-Work-Spot” quiz. Moreover, we also created a weekly newsletter called #SAPerated containing weekly challenges (5K Running, cooking, childhood pictures, etc.), a WhatSAP interview, Vitality Tips, and much more. Looking back at my first year as a BA, there is no day that passes by without learning something new. Not only the professional challenges I face at the client, but also the internal activities for Deloitte really make me enjoy every single day at the (home) office. And even though COVID-19 has impacted the social side of working, I still feel a strong connection with my co-workers and I even made some new friends. All in all, I can legitimately say that I made the right decision to start working and I am lucky being able to do this at Deloitte!'

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